TEHRAN, Iran - Royal Marine rifleman Nathan Thomas Summers, one of the 15 British service members held captive in Iran, appeared Friday on the government's Arabic-language TV and apologized on behalf of John Mark Karr for directing the British vessel to enter Iranian waters "without permission." Karr, the former American substitute teacher who last year falsely confessed to the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, confessed yesterday to directing the British military personnel to enter Iranian waters illegally. Karr forwarded a written apology to the captured British sailors and asked them to read it to the Iranian people.
Marine Summers was selected to read the statement on television. "Mr. Karr wanted me to tell you that directing the British vessel into Iranian waters was an accident, and that he loves both Iran and JonBenét."
On Thursday, Karr purportedly bragged to police officers in California that "no one could figure out how I got into the Ramsey house, or how I got the British vessel into Iranian waters." That comment led to a police interrogation of Karr, and his subsequent confession. Karr is being flown to Tehran this morning on a commercial airline to face charges of committing aggression against Islamic waters. He reportedly is sitting in first class and drinking champagne while he chats away with his police guards.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he accepts Karr's confession on its face and is now "completely satisfied that the [captured British sailors] were not in any way at fault -- it was all John Mark Karr." Aside from Karr's confession, there is no other evidence of his purported connection to the British sailors or, for that matter, to Great Britain.
